Different types of mining and construction machines, such as tractors, bulldozers, backhoes, excavators, motor graders, and mining trucks commonly employ earth-working blades to move and level earth or materials being excavated or loaded. The earth-working blades frequently experience extreme wear from repeated contact with highly abrasive materials encountered during operation. Replacement of the earth-working blades and other implements used in mining and construction machinery can be very costly and labor intensive.
The earth-working blades can be equipped with a ground engaging tool (GET), such as a cutting-bit or a set of cutting-bits, to help protect the blade and other earth-working tools from wear. Typically, a cutting-bit can be in the form of teeth, edge protectors, tips, or other removable components that can be attached to the areas of the blade or other tool where most damaging and repeated abrasions and impacts occur. For example, a GET in the form of edge protectors can wrap around an implement's cutting edge to help protect it from excessive wear.
In such applications, the removable cutting-bits can be subjected to wear from abrasion and repeated impact, while helping to protect the blade or other implement to which they can be mounted. When the cutting-bit becomes worn through use, it can be removed and replaced with a new cutting-bit or other GET at a reasonable cost to permit the continued use of the implement. By protecting the implement with a GET and replacing the worn GET at appropriate intervals, significant cost and time savings are possible.
The cost and time savings available from using a cutting-bit to protect large machine implements can be further enhanced by increasing the ability of the cutting-bit to cut through the working material. In many applications, a machine must make a pass using a first implement, such as a ripper or other cutting tool, to cut the earth or other working material before making another pass with a second implement, such as a blade, to move the material. Thus, an implement system able to cut the working material and move the material with a blade using fewer passes can result in increased work efficiency. There is an ongoing need in the art for an improved cutting-bit system that increases the efficiency of earth-working machinery and increases productivity.
It will be appreciated that this background description has been created by the inventors to aid the reader, and is not to be taken as an indication that any of the indicated problems were themselves appreciated in the art. While the described principles can, in some respects and embodiments, alleviate the problems inherent in other systems, it will be appreciated that the scope of the protected innovation is defined by the attached claims, and not by the ability of any disclosed feature to solve any specific problem noted herein.